Keep Delaware Beautiful launches cleanup events June 1-30

For the 20th anniversary of Keep America Beautiful’s Great American Cleanup, the nation’s largest community improvement program, Keep Delaware Beautiful will promote events Friday, June 1, and Saturday, June 30

The Great American Cleanup, which takes place annually in an estimated 20,000 communities nationwide, engages more than 5 million volunteers and participants, on average, every year to create a positive and lasting impact. Keep Delaware Beautiful, along with Keep America Beautiful’s more than 600 community-based affiliates and partnering organizations, plans volunteer events and education programs that help renew parks, trails and recreation areas; clean shorelines and waterways; remove litter and debris; and plant trees, flowers and community gardens.

To get involved in Delaware’s Great American Cleanup efforts, go to www.keepdelawarebeautiful.com to register an event for any date from June 1 to 30. Keep Delaware Beautiful will provide organizers with Great American Cleanup logos to use to promote the event, certificates from Keep America Beautiful and Keep Delaware Beautiful, and promotion of the event on social media and Keep Delaware Beautiful’s website. Following the events, groups are asked to report their cleanup results using a simple online form.

“We’re excited to kick off the 20th anniversary of the Great American Cleanup with events in Delaware and thousands of others throughout America,” said Keep America Beautiful President and CEO Helen Lowman. “Keep America Beautiful thanks its affiliates and partner organizations who work hard to create meaningful and lasting change in their local communities. The Great American Cleanup has been so successful over its 20-year history because local government, businesses, civic organizations and dedicated volunteers all work together to make sure every neighborhood is a clean, green and beautiful place to live and thrive in.”

The 2018 Great American Cleanup social theme – #cleanYOURblock – is a call to action to engage volunteers and participants in public space cleanup, beautification and recycling events conducted by Keep America Beautiful affiliates nationwide. Once individuals become Great American Cleanup volunteers with their local Keep America Beautiful affiliate or partner, the national nonprofit’s goal is that they will be inspired to take that experience home to organize a similar, smaller-scale event in their own neighborhood ... even on their own block.

Volunteers are invited to participate in a local cleanup – and/or conduct their own – and then celebrate the hard work afterward, creating a national #cleanYOURblock Party!

“The objective of a Clean Your Block party is to provide an opportunity to spread the word on beautifying communities, educate and encourage volunteers to build a sense of community pride and stewardship, and offer experiences that help change behaviors with the goal of making a lasting, positive initiative on communities nationwide, block by block,” said Lowman.

Keep Delaware Beautiful was formed in 2016 with the purpose of fostering and promoting Keep America Beautiful programs focused on litter prevention, community beautification and minimizing the impact of solid waste in Delaware.

Celebrating its 65th anniversary in 2018, Keep America Beautiful strives to end littering, improve recycling and beautify America’s communities. Everyone has a right to live in a clean, green and beautiful community, and shares a responsibility to contribute to that vision.

Behavior change – steeped in education, research and behavioral science – is the cornerstone of Keep America Beautiful. Generations of community and environmental stewards are empowered with volunteer programs, hands-on experiences, educational curricula, practical advice and other resources. The organization is driven by the work and passion of more than 600 Keep America Beautiful affiliates, millions of volunteers and the collaborative support of corporate partners, social and civic service organizations, academia, municipalities, elected officials, and individuals.

For more information, to donate or take action, go to www.kab.org.